Will streetcar cynics, parking pooh-poohers and smattering of Republicans propel him to mayor's office?

Jul. 29, 2013

Enquirer photo illustration

Written by

Jane Prendergast

Take the Cincinnati streetcar haters and parking-lease fighters, then add some Republicans and people who think their neighborhoods have been neglected in favor of Downtown. Does that make a coalition big enough to put John Cranley in the mayor’s office?

That’s the question in this year’s race, which pits Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls – Mayor Mark Mallory’s favored successor and a former mayor – against Cranley, a councilman from 2000 to 2009; Libertarian Jim Berns; and potentially several other candidates.

Both Qualls and Cranley are Democrats. But Cranley’s outreach to Republicans and conservative groups has irked some Democrats – no small issue in a city where President Barack Obama won 85 percent of the precincts in the November 2012 election.

Cranley says his message is a “unifying” one: kill the streetcar, expand the middle class in all neighborhoods, quicken the pace of development, don’t “privatize parking to Wall Street.”

Those stances have meant partnering with Republicans and conservatives, including the group COAST, the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes.

For fans of Qualls – who supports the streetcar and the parking lease – Cranley’s campaign is just a list of things he’s against, not what he’s really for.

“Just saying ‘no’ in general doesn’t move the city forward,” said Jens Sutmoller, Qualls’ campaign manager. “That’s not what the voters are looking for. Effective leadership is being able to provide a pathway forward to doing something, not just opposing things.”

Qualls did acknowledge, in an April post on Facebook, that her lead over Cranley had slipped “because of well-funded, energetic and negative opposition.”

Cranley, a Democrat, also has the support of Councilman Christopher Smitherman, president of the Cincinnati branch of the NAACP. And Tom Brinkman, COAST chairman, says although the group endorsed Libertarian Jim Berns, members like “the new” Cranley.

But many regard those two groups as very polarizing, so their support can be both positive and negative.

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Here’s what else is working working for Cranley and against him:

• Streetcar opponents are plentiful. But the plan has many supporters, too: Cincinnati voters twice voted down ballot measures in 2009 and 2011 that could have stopped the now $133 million project, though they did so by just 51.5 percent to 48.5 percent.

• Fellow Democrats are complaining that he is attending events held for Republican council candidates. He did go to one for Amy Murray, his campaign chief Jay Kincaid said, because it was hosted by a supporter of his, Neil Bortz. A fundraiser for newcomer Melissa Wegman happened to be going on at the Incline House, the bar/restaurant Cranley and partners developed in East Price Hill, when Cranley was there having a meeting. Cranley stopped to meet a few people as he was on his way out, Kincaid said.

Cranley has donated to several Democratic candidates, Kincaid said, including Greg Landsman, Wendell Young and Pamula Thomas. Former mayor Charlie Luken, a Democrat, is supporting him.

Qualls supporter Councilman Chris Seelbach and Kincaid got into a heated discussion Friday night leaving the Christ the King festival in Mount Lookout. Kincaid said Seelbach had been openly questioning Cranley’s party allegiance. Kincaid told the councilman he should mind his own race and stay out of the mayor’s. Tim Burke, chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, said several Democratic council candidates are “bent out of shape” because Cranley has attended Republican events.

Mayor and council races are nonpartisan. Candidates can tout endorsements, but party affiliations do not appear on the ballot.

• More than 12,000 Cincinnati registered voters signed petitions to put the parking lease on the November ballot. How much of an indicator that is depends on whether the people signing really knew that the lease would bring $92 million upfront to the city and at least $3 million a year for 30 to 50 years, or if they just signed because they feared parking rates would go up.

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• A big June 19 fundraiser hosted by attorney Bob Coletti, former chairman of the county Republican party. Democrats point to it as a sign Cranley is really in tight with what they see as the dark side. But there are Democrats hosting the party, too. And Coletti – he’s a partner at Keating Muething & Klekamp, where Cranley works – has supported Democrats in the past also, including former Cincinnati Councilman and Hamilton County Commissioner David Pepper, who’s running now for attorney general.

“There are a lot of Republicans supporting John. There’s no question about that,” said Alex Triantafilou, chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party. “But I know John to be a Democrat. I just wish we had a good Republican candidate.”

Sutmoller sees it in more dramatic terms: “The Democrats are running away from John Cranley and John Cranley is running toward the Republicans,” Qualls’ campaign manager said.

• A March poll found Qualls more popular than Cranley, with 39 percent of respondents saying they’d vote for her compared with 25 percent for him. They had nearly equal likeability ratings, both in the low 50 percents. The last time the two ran for council together, in 2007, Qualls finished first and Cranley second – separated by three votes.

The phone poll was commissioned by Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann, who’s considering getting into the race. It had a 4.9 percent margin of error.

The Hamilton County Democratic Party doesn’t plan to endorse in the race between its two longtime Democrats. Burke does predict a serious battle.

“As far as I’m concerned, we have two Democrats in the race,” he said. “They are both very tough. And they’re both very willing to share their opinions.” ■